The syntax of the Latin presentative adverb ecce: Relation to focus phrase

Abstract

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the variables that determine the syntactic distribution of ecce, a presentative adverb in Latin. Traditionally, grammarians have simply regarded ecce as an adverb (similar to here) or an interjection (similar to hey!) but this lexicographic view misses important syntactic phenomena. For example, adverbs in Latin can follow subjects, but ecce cannot. Interjections can be used as single words to express surprise, but ecce, as a presentative, is never used in the absence of a following determiner phrase (DP). Two corpora of almost seven million Latin words ranging from ∼200 BCE to 1800 CE were analyzed for instances of ecce. Adopting a cartographic approach, results suggest that ecce, as a presentative, is base-generated in the head of a Focus phrase (FocP) projection in the matrix clause. This is confirmed through its consistent precedence of subjects, scope over left-dislocated constituents in [Spec, FocP], and its ungrammaticality in the embedded domain. This study brings to light several theoretical implications for the under-studied category of presentatives by showing how discourse and hierarchical properties license the use of ecce and restrict its contexts of use.